gain bah boehner has been here a long time. he saw the coup attempt to speaker gingrich by members of his old party. he knows he has to hold those people together to negotiate with the president. he saw a little bit of wiggle room earlier with jim demint coming out earlier and said he thought the tax offer was an outrage. from the right you can see the speaker tamping that out with his boot. gwen: the president has not always been where he is on this now with the tax rate. he's said in the past that maybe the tax rates should not be raised and that would be bad for the economy. what changed? >> the economy changed. the economy is better. a lot has been made of the fact that the president caved two years ago, december of 2010. that was when the buschera tax rates first expired and he agreed to a two-year extension. yes, he caved but i think in fairness to the president he got a lot for it and the economy wasn't doing so well, which is why he wanted stimulus in the first place. in return for extending them then, he got payroll ta